1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a decoding method and a decoding apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for decoding a control channel using at least one sub-burst.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Typically, terminals of a wireless communication system e.g., a mobile communication system) are designed to perform in one of several modes, such as, an active mode or an idle mode.
In the active mode, the terminal receives and transmits data, such as, voices, data, or images, from and to at least one base station included in the wireless communication system. In the idle mode, also called a standby mode, the terminal monitors a paging channel periodically to obtain messages. To obtain messages, the terminal also monitors a broadcast control channel and updates its system parameters.
In the idle mode, the terminal continuously consumes power to maintain the connections required to monitor signals output by the base stations of the wireless communication system, such as, a global system for mobile communications (GSM).
A portable terminal, such as, a mobile communications terminal, is supplied with power by its internal battery. Power consumption by the terminal in the idle mode causes available power of the internal battery to decrease.
To reduce the power consumption in the idle mode, messages are transmitted to the terminal through the paging channel. For example, in a GSM system, special time division multiple access (TDMA) frames are allocated to each terminal for its paging channel. Messages are transmitted to the terminals by using the TDMA frames. A paging message in a GSM denotes a message that is transmitted via a paging channel.
In a GSM system, a terminal periodically monitors a paging channel to obtain messages output by base stations included in the GSM system. The terminal awakes from a “sleep state” before receiving a TDMA frame which is firstly indicated for the paging channel, enters into an “awake state”, receives all of the four bursts transmitted as a paging message, and processes the four bursts to recover the paging message. The terminal returns to the sleep state when additional communication is not needed.
Hence, it is desirable to reduce the power consumed by the terminal in the sleep state and in the awake state. In particular, the sleep state of a terminal lasts much longer than the awake state thereof, so that the power consumed by the terminal in an idle mode, particularly, in a sleep state, needs to be minimized in order to prolong the life of the internal battery of the terminal